LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 8/2/2014

TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE Thanks to a cooperative effort of two Iron Workers union locals, the former Scranton Transit Company Trolley Car 505 is undergoing steel restoration near Reading. It will return here for final restoration before being put back in service at the Electric City Trolley Museum and Station.

Region’s kindness

to vets rolls on

Editor: The treatment, caring and concern shown for our veterans by people here is as good as anywhere in the United States. It is obvious in the care shown to the resident veterans at the Gino Merli Veterans Center in Scranton.

This was amply demonstrated by the exceptional attendance at the 15th annual Salute to Veterans Ride on July 19. It is put on by Rolling Thunder Pennsylvania Chapter 3.

Veterans/nonvets, riders/nonriders and others who just walked in to make a donation and simply said “thank you” were part of the success.

Thank you to our quiet sponsors who contribute to the ride each year.

I have lived here all my life and never doubted the sincerity, empathy and care given to our veterans. It is as if it is inherited in our genes and it goes a long way back. The Revolutionary War and every war since have produced veterans that our government unfortunately was slow to help. But little communities like ours were not.

It seems that helping is a part of our culture. When a coal miner was injured in a mine accident, it was not the mine company owners but his family, friends and the community who responded to care for him.

I had an ancestor who lost an eye in the Civil War. When he came home injured it was his family, friends and his community who helped him get on his feet again.

That’s exactly the same kind of people who attend our ride.

I am so very proud of our heritage, and proud to be a member of Rolling Thunder Pennsylvania Chapter 3. I am very proud to live among people who care. Thank you with all our hearts.

JOHN H. GOLDEN

SCRANTON

Steep charges

onerous burden

Editor: I am an inmate at the Lackawanna County Prison and like most other inmates here I cannot afford to communicate with my loved ones at home. I am

indigent.

The prison phones are operated by a private company. Phone calls can be made using money from the inmate commissary account or by making a collect call.

It’s not really a collect call though. Whoever you’re calling has to set up a prepaid account with the company. For example, one 20-minute phone call from here to Pittston costs $8.20. The company charges $9 just to add funds to this prepaid account. That’s $9 every time funds are added. So, two of these “collect” calls cost just about $30. If you choose to make a call using money that you already have on your commissary account, the rate of $8.20 per 20 minutes remains the same. However, if you have less than $10 on your books, the system will not allow you to place any phone calls.

There is no way around using the prison’s phone arrangement — not through my home phone provider or my cell provider.

You’d think that good old-fashion mail would be a good option for communication but you’d be wrong. Stamped envelopes are about as common as fresh air here. The official prison line is that an indigent kit containing five envelopes, pen, paper, soap and shampoo is given every two weeks to inmates with no money on their books. That’s not even a little bit true.

I am well aware that one letter to the editor isn’t going to change the system here. But maybe I can shed a little light on it.

JOSHUA FARINELLA

INMATE,

LACKAWANNA COUNTY PRISON

Unions give lift

to trolley project

Editor: We of the Electric City Trolley Museum Association, Project 505, express our thanks for the July 23 article in your newspaper on the movement of the former Scranton Transit Co.’s Trolley No. 505 from Scranton to Bernville. There it will undergo steel fabrication as its initial stage of restoration based on builder’s drawings and related information.

For this restoration, we are greatly indebted to the Iron Workers Local 489 and its business manager, Kevin J. McHugh, with offices in Yatesville that provide for the comprehensive training of young apprentices in steel work from a 12-county area of Northeast Pennsylvania.

It was Mr. McHugh who invited the members of Project 505 to send the rusted shell of the trolley to the Iron Workers Local 420 training facility at Bernville, a rural community northwest of Reading. Both union locals share in their common training mission.

Because they are recognized as non-profit educational agencies, the Iron Workers locals will do the work on the trolley without cost as a community service and Project 505 will provide the funds for the material. This partnership will offer learning opportunities for those in the training program, some of whom may come from the Scranton area.

This is a great benefit to our region because it prepares skilled workers, who, upon completion of their apprenticeship, will be highly qualified for employment in Pennsylvania industries.

We express our genuine gratitude and appreciation to the iron workers and their leaders, Mr. McHugh of Local 489, and Curt Campfield, Mike Shuster and Gary Martin of Local 420, for their outreach to us and their splendid cooperation as we begin the restoration process. Bob McGregor, McGregor Industries, Dunmore, also helped with arrangements.

Project 505 is taking on the project with the help of tax-deductible donations.

In my family we needed what father killed for food; it was The Depression. I lived surrounded by woods and bears were in the yard almost daily. There was no problem. I never was threatened by one.

To be proud of murdering a wild animal if it is not causing trouble to crops or anything is anomolous to me. The animal belonged to God, not the killer, and if the killer destroyed it only for sport or bragging, that is something to be ashamed of, not proud.

COLETTE GREDER

SOUTH ABINGTON TWP.

Tasty treat

Editor: A recent letter by Silvie Pomicter describing black bears, and the hunting of them in Pennsylvania, left out one important fact — they taste good.

JOHN S. BLOM

HALLSTEAD,

SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY

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